The Case For Fan Films: Are They Relevant In A New Age of Fandom?

Spider-Man: Lotus and Superman: Solar’s controversial releases recall how big the fan film community has gotten in the past three decades.

Fan films come about when big fans of a popular franchise make an unofficial short film about it. Most of the time, these fans have no professional filmmaking experience and extremely low budgets. The main charm of a fan film lies in the way the fans convey their clear passion for the franchise in the fan film, despite its low production values.

An Overview of The Average Fan Film

Some fan films are made to gain professional film work in the future from it. As The Real Spider-Man: The Making of The Green Goblin’s Last Stand explains, director and star of The Green Goblin’s Last Stand, Dan Poole, made the fan film and others like it in response to the announcement of an upcoming Spider-Man film.

It’s believed Poole hoped The Green Goblin’s Last Stand will show people what he can do, earning Poole the opportunity to be involved in the actual Spider-Man film. While Poole wouldn’t come to be involved in the 2002 Spider-Man film, The Green Goblin’s Last Stand still leaves a mark because of the sheer scope of Poole’s onscreen commitment to faithfully recreating Spider-Man comics.

The most fascinating fan films provide a new angle to the established lore, an angle that is unlikely to be seen in an official work.

An early instance would be the Star Wars fan film series, Pink Five. Each of the shorts follow the adventures of a rebel pilot codenamed Pink Five, aka Stacy, whose personality is modeled after the average valley girl. It’s basically the Star Wars Original Trilogy, but viewed through the eyes of a valley…